Return To Heliopolis
by Major Clanger
Summary: SG-1 go back to visit Ernest's castle from the S1 ep Torment of Tantalus


Title: **_Return to Heliopolis_**  
Author: Major Clanger  
Email: majclanger@aol.com  
Category: General  
Pairing: none  
Spoilers: S1s Torment of Tantalus, and some teeny-weeny ones for other seasons  
Season: after  
Rating: 

Content: 

Status:   
Summary:

Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1 and it's characters are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions and Gekko Productions. These stories are for entertainment purposes only, and no money exchanged hands. Really. Honestly. No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters, situations and stories are the property of the author. That is me, and I write under the name of "Major Clanger" for reasons that are unclear, even to me. These stories may not be posted elsewhere without my consent, although if you really want to, you could send me an e-mail and ask. After you get the smelling salts under my nose, I'll probably say "yes".  
Author's notes:

"Phone...phone.... where is the blasted thing?" Daniel, having been ripped from a rather pleasant dream about presenting his proof that pyramids were used as landing sites for alien spacecraft, fumbled around his bedside table. He gave up the search when the answering machine cut in, "beep... you know the form... leave me a message... beep beep beeeeeeep" 

"Daniel! Get your butt over to the SGC right now! Ah, um, please." Jack's initial irate explosion had been tempered by Carter, her voice heard clearly in the background, reminding him that since Daniel was on a day off, and had had a late night, he couldn't really be expected to be awake at 06:00 hrs.

He snaked his arm across  the bed and came into contact with the damp towel which had been thrown carelessly down on the counterpane. He knew he'd been tired, but he must have been completely out of it to miss the usual morning noise of shower, hair dryer, teeth cleaning and so on. It had surprised him to learn, since he no longer lived alone, that he was a very quiet person – or was it maybe that the military were just so used to all the shouting and banging about that they didn't notice it even when they were off duty.

Daniel groaned, fumbled around some more and, having found his glasses, glanced at the clock. He wished he hadn't... he'd been in bed for just under two hours. He returned his glasses to the nightstand, turned over and pulled the covers over his head. It hadn't sounded as though Apophis was landing on Cheyenne mountain, or any other similar catastrophe, and he couldn't think of any other reason, other than Jack being Jack, for the rude awakening. So he closed his eyes and tried to recover his dream.

It eluded him. His brain had switched on as soon as he heard the first 'Daniel' and now his curiosity was aroused and he wanted to know what could be so important, so early in the morning, on his day off. An uncharitable thought crossed his mind ... "OK Daniel, that's just petty ... even Jack wouldn't do that."

He sat up, rubbed his eyes, went through his usual 'dragging himself out of bed after a really late night' routine. The phone rang again; this time he picked it up at the first ring „Jack I really don't think... Oh, hi Sam..... Yes, of course I'm awake...... yes, I'll be there in an hour, OK?"

He grumbled his way into the bathroom, peered at his reflection –wished he hadn't – and decided that coffee was imperative before any other action could begin. A fly-on-the-wall would have seen a tall young man, almost implausibly dressed in navy-blue pyjamas, with a pink aardvark-type creature embroidered on the breast pocket (they had been a present and he wore them only to please the giver, or so he told himself) shuffle into the kitchen as though he were in his 80s and not his 30s. Still, the fly would have excused him because of the late night he'd just had.

A cup of coffee, shower and shave later the transformed Dr. Daniel Jackson sprinkled some fish food in the general direction of his pets and left the apartment. Half an hour after that he was in the elevator, on his way down to the control room. Daniel reflected that even after 4 years of this, he would never ever get used to the fact that the military thought 6am – 06:00 hrs he corrected himself – was a reasonable time to be at work, even on the weekend. "Especially on the weekend." He thought uncharitably.

-oOo-

"Hi Daniel," Sam waved him over "sorry about the early wake up call, but I really thought you'd want to see this." She offered him a donut in silent apology, which he accepted in the spirit it was meant. 

" 's okay, I didn't think you'd be calling to tell me that ... hey, that's mine!" this last at his CO who had whisked the half-eaten donut from his hand

"Didn't anyone ever tell you that junk food is no substitute for a proper breakfast? Besides – all that sugar will rot your teeth." Jack grinned through the crumbs "Come on down to the commissary and the good Major and I will tell you what's been going on while you've been gallivanting."

Sam dragged herself away from the information in front of her "Yeah, I could use some coffee at least." She looked as though it was an effort to get up from her chair "I've got to give up these late nights combined with early starts."

A few minutes later Daniel was halfway through his third coffee of the day and licking the residue of maple syrup from his lips "Mmmm, better than donuts any day." He pushed his plate, now totally devoid of any traces of pancake, away and looked at Col. O'Neill expectantly "So, Jack, are you going to tell me what this is about?"

Jack looked up from his breakfast "Give me a chance, Daniel, this is the first thing I've eaten since yesterday lunchtime..." 

"I see you're back on the Fruit Loops... what was that about junk food for breakfast?"

"I'm too old for it to make a difference." Jack spooned up the last of the multi-coloured rings and patted his stomach. "Anyway, I was getting tired of oatmeal."

"Sam?" Daniel turned to his regular ally "Are you going to put me out of my misery, or am I going back home?"

"OK, OK... I'll tell you. Carter will only blind you with science." He ducked as a half-eaten slice of toast narrowly missed his head "You know the cold-dialling programme?"

"Old news Jack, get on with it." 

"Well," Jack waved away the interruption "there was some kind of 'glitch', and it re-dialled somewhere we've actually visited. Somewhere... ah... interesting."

"Oh, Sir, it's more than interesting!" Sam's eyes were shining like a kid at Christmas "Daniel, you remember when we found Ernest and he showed us that periodic table..."

"Ernest's 'Heliopolis' That gate was buried.". Daniel looked wide awake and interested now "Can we get there?"

"Well, it seems that there was some seismic activity, and the Stargate was dislodged, it's still under water though."

"And the castle?"

"No idea. General Hammond is seriously considering our request to take a look." Jack gave Daniel his best smug grin. "So, is this worth being dragged out of your festering pit for? Hey, slow down, it's not going to happen within the next five minutes."

Sam stood up and followed Daniel from the room "No Sir, but I think we'd better take another look."

"Well, if you kids are going to do the scientific stuff, I'll just grab some more of these here Fruit Loops and follow you when my old bones are ready..." but Jack was talking to empty space. He sighed and stood up to follow them up to the control room.

He looked at Daniel and Sam as they stood waiting for the elevator. Daniel's hands were flying around and he was talking nineteen-to-the-dozen, Sam was nodding and answering at the same speed. Jack slowed down, willing the elevator to arrive. He was glad they were excited about this, but that didn't mean he was going to stand in a elevator with them in that state.

He looked towards them once more. They were oblivious to everything around them. Daniel was glowering at the elevator indicator which, according to Jack's understanding of the linguist's body language, meant that he thought it was moving in slow-motion just to annoy him. Jack slowed down some more and saw with relief that there were a few notices on the board that he hadn't yet read. He read the daily orders, duty roster and acquainted himself with the fact that there would be an inter-denominational service two weeks hence in memory of those SGC personnel who had lost their lives in the service of their country.

He also noted that SG-4 and SG-5 had teamed up against SG-6 and 7 in some kind of tug-of-war thing. There was a standing invitation to other SG teams to join in – Jack found himself toying with the idea of entering his team but he couldn't think of another SG team that would be prepared to join up with them. He glanced surreptitiously towards the elevator, saw with relief the absence of any excited scientific types stood before it, and headed off to the control room.

-oOo-

The room fell silent around Sgt. Davies as he counted down the seconds to receiving MALP telemetry. The monitors crackled into life, and the first pictures of P3X-972, since SG-1's dramatic return three years before, burst onto the screens. To everyone's surprise they found themselves looking, not at a sea-bed as they had anticipated, but at a narrow, stony beach which rose abruptly to a rocky cliff face.

Sam manipulated the camera as much as possible, but there really wasn't much to see. A small amount of blue but cloudy sky, and, directly behind the gate, the sea stretching away to the horizon. The MALP did it's stuff, and eventually they were able to ascertain that somehow the gate was wedged on some rocks on the small beach. The cliffs didn't  look impossibly steep, just pretty steep. Of the castle there was no sign.

"What do you think, Sir?" Carter turned to General Hammond "I think it might be worth further investigation."

He nodded "I'll give it some thought, Major Carter. I'd like you to monitor the location for the next 24 hours. We need to know that the gate isn't going to shift again, and that the tide isn't going to cut off anyone we send through. I'd also like your best shot as to why it is suddenly where it is." He turned and left the room.

"Daniel, you OK?" Jack suddenly realised that he'd been expecting some excited chatter from Daniel, but that so far he hadn't uttered a word.

"Uh... what.. um...yes. Fine." came the uncharacteristically inarticulate and abrupt reply.

Sam and Jack exchanged a look. Something was bugging Daniel, and that worried them. He should be all systems go, looking for a reason to persuade General Hammond that he be allowed to go immediately and start looking for Ernest's‚ 'Heliopolis' – but instead he was leaning against the wall pensively, with his arms wrapped around his body. Oh no.

Oh yes. The Defensive Daniel stance. This alarmed Jack, but Sam had returned to controlling the MALP, and had no time to spare worrying about Daniel's sudden inability to speak. Jack was on his own here. He let out a long sigh. He hated all this 'touchy feely' stuff, but he wasn't going on any missions with Daniel in 'closed' mode.

"We'd better check back every hour or so" Sam instructed Sgt. Davies "then we can work out some sort of schedule for tides, sunset etc. As far as I remember, the day is approximately 25 and a half hours long, so we'd better monitor the place for at least that long, preferably two days. I'll have a word with the General."

Jack watched her leave, wondering how this cautious approach would affect Daniel. Looking up to the ceiling, as if in supplication to some higher being, Jack saw only strip lighting, and that offered only a headache. He sighed and went over to his team mate.

"C'mon Daniel. Must be about time to ingest some of the commissary's 'coffee-like substance' and grab some lunch."

Daniel said nothing but gave a curt nod of agreement, pushed himself off the wall and walked in silence towards the elevator. He said nothing on the journey up to the commissary, nothing while he collected coffee and some kind of chocolate bar, nothing while he consumed both. Only when he'd started his second mug of dark-brown warm liquid – Jack's description had been overly ambitious – did he look Jack in the eye and speak.

"I don't think I'm ready to go back there."

"Um, Daniel. As far as I remember, you wanted to stay there until you starved to death... or worse."

"Yes. And I was acting like a total jerk. Right?"

"Well, as you know, I've behaved like a jerk once or twice... Yeah, OK, Danny, maybe more than that... but you know what I mean."

Daniel merely grunted. He looked downcast, and uncomfortable.

"Ah, for cryin' out loud, Daniel! Something's bugging you, and I'm not a trick cyclist, so cut me some slack here and tell me what it is." Jack winced as he heard the clichés pour, unplanned, out of his mouth. Oh heck, Daniel was going to love that.

"Um.." Daniel found his coffee extremely interesting all of a sudden. He spoke without looking up "If you really want to know, I'd rather not be reminded of the way I acted then. I know that the information that that room contained would be really really really useful but I don't want to get carried away with it again and, well, I don't think...." he paused for breath.

Jack took his chance and jumped in "Look, we're monitoring P3X-972 carefully, for up to two days. You heard Carter, nobody is going anywhere, and that includes you, if there isn't a damned good chance of them getting back. OK?!"

Daniel had the grace to look slightly chastened...."OK, but I actually have a bad feeling about that place. I mean, Ernest was there for, what, 50 years? Then we nearly didn't make it back... OK, OK, that was mostly my fault, but still... then the cold-dialling programme has a 'glitch' and now the gate is miraculously upright again?"

"So since when are you superstitious Daniel? You're the most questioning, sceptical person I ever met.... just relax and enjoy the ride. You know, if we find that room I'm probably going to have to wrestle you out of there again if that storm comes back."

"Oh yeah? Well, I'm not the weedy dweeb I was then... what makes you think you'd get me out this time? Anyway, we know the Asgard and the Tollan now... I'm sure they'd help out." Daniel looked a lot happier "C'mon, let's see what's happening."

-oOo-

Sam had persuaded the General that it would be more prudent to monitor the situation for 2 of P3X-972s days before making any decisions. Sgt Siler had also managed to modify one of the other MALPs so that they could get a better look at the top of the cliff, where they hoped the castle would still be. 

Hope. It is said that where there's hope, there's life – the control room was certainly lively. The hopeful people were rewarded a few hours later with a glimpse in the twilight of something that looked like it might be Ernest's erstwhile home. Well, not home, that's not the word. Prison. Nope, also not the right term.

Ernest had had a love/hate relationship with the place. As a scientist he had marvelled at everything it had revealed.... he had hated not being able to share anything with the rest of the world.... he had wanted to stay.... had wanted to escape.

Daniel thought he knew how Ernest had felt. He, too, hadn't wanted to leave, and now he almost didn't want to go back. Almost. Because he did want to. Badly. He hoped – there it is again, hope, can't keep a good hope down – that he would be able to tear himself away from it this time without having to be practically manhandled through the gate. He was also desperately hoping that the room would still be there, and not have been destroyed since they had seen it. That was his overriding hope. That the room would still exist, that he would once again have all that information to examine.

Daniel wasn't the only hopeful one. Teal'c – where has he been all this time? Just hanging around in the background, thats where. Don't worry, he's always there when we need him – Teal'c hoped that they would learn something that would be useful in the Tauri's struggle against those false gods otherwise known as the Goa'uld.

Sam.... of course, Sam hoped for another look at that periodic table of the elements... elements she had never suspected might even exist. Last time she hadn't had more than a minute or two to examine it... other, more pressing, things had claimed her attention.

She was also desperately trying to calculate the frequency of the storm – General Hammond had refused her request to contact Ernest to pick his brain about it – and predict when the next one was due. Her reckonings were based on Ernest's comment that it was an annual event, and hoping for a clear night and a good look at the stars in an effort to work out the length of a year.... Sam was hoping for a lot, in fact. 

And Jack? Well, he was hoping for a smooth ride, a mission where they could learn something useful. To be honest, he was hoping for a mission where he didn't argue with Daniel about something. Most of all he was hoping that they would all get back in one piece.

So time went on. Sgt Davies opened the Stargate at two hourly intervals, and the teams collected and collated the data. There had been a brief flurry of excitement when the modified MALP showed better images of Ernest's Castle. A lot of the rooms appeared to be open to the elements, but apart from being right at the cliff edge, it looked basically sound.

SG-1 made another foray into the commissary, and once again lived to regret it. More monitoring, more checks, another trip for another meal. They survived to watch the MALP being brought back after 52 hours of monitoring. Then, finally, after amassing all possible information, Sam was ready to report to General Hammond.

-oOo-

"... so the high tide is at midday on P3X-972 every day and then again at midnight, we should be able to manage without using a sub, but I would recommend that we have one here on standby for emergencies."

"What about the position of the gate, Major?"

"Well, Sir, I believe that the gate moved due to some recent seismic activity, but we have monitored the ocean floor, and there is no sign of any further tremors. At it's present location it is only totally submerged at high tide."

"But it's moved since we got our first hit two days ago."

"Yes Sir, but I think that's because the vortex may have pushed it upright. Now that there is nothing to impede the vortex when we establish the wormhole, the gate should stay put."

"Good, then I suggest that the first priority will be to anchor the gate, then connect the power source. Will the naquada reactor still function if it is submerged?"

"Yes Sir."

"OK, SG-1, you have a go, I suggest you all get some sleep, and leave here at the next low tide." They stood up as General Hammond left the briefing room.

"OK, kids jammies on. Now who's for cocoa and a bedtime story?" 

"Geez, Jack, what is it with you and 'jammies' anyway?" Daniel was muttering under his breath on the way out.

-oOo-

Daniel was already grumbling in the gear-up room when Jack arrived the next morning. Teal'c was taking it in good humour, but Sam looked very tired, as though she had spent the whole night working, and was in no mood to cope with a grumpy anthropologist. But despite her obvious fatigue she beamed a dazzling smile at her CO as he entered "Can't remember when I so looked forward to going rock-climbing, Sir."

"Rock climbing?" Daniel looked alarmed.

"Yes Daniel. There are no elevators...."

"OK, OK, but 'rock-climbing'... I didn't think it looked so extreme."

Sam gave him a sympathetic pat on the arm "Look, it's ok, we'll top-rope. Teal'c will go first, then me. That way you'll have the support of both of us at the top."

"Yeah, and something soft to land on." Daniel looked pointedly at Jack.

"What did I do now?"

"You could have told me... rock-climbing..." Daniel collected the rest of his gear together, shaking his head and muttering under his breath.

"Well, you're the one who was telling me you weren't a ... what was it now... ah yes 'weedy dweeb' anymore. So now you can prove it." Jack stalked out of the room, Daniel followed still muttering. Sam and Teal'c brought up the rear.

"MajorCarter" Teal'c's face was displaying what, for him, could be classed as a wide grin "I believe that watching DanielJackson and Colonel O'Neill is better than television."  Sam stared open mouthed, then had to hurry to catch up with him, shaking with silent laughter.

"Do you know what, Teal'c? I think you're right!"

-oOo-

Daniel stood in the gate room scowling at the pile of ropes, metal pegs, unidentifiable nylon things and carabena clips – in short the paraphernalia associated with rock climbing. He wondered if his life insurance policy covered this type of activity.

Jack slapped him on the back in a comradely way "Look Daniel, the worst that's going to happen is you'll be hanging by a rope, attached to your harness and Teal'c and Carter will pull you up." Daniel paled noticeably. "Well, of course, if you're not up to it, we can always find someone else who'd love to get a look at this place..."

"No, that won't be necessary. After all, how hard can it be... the military do this all the time." Daniel stomped off and checked over his pile of recording equipment for the 50th time. OK, that's probably an exaggeration, but he had checked more than was strictly necessary already.

General Hammond's voice giving the order to go echoed around the gate room, the gate made it's "Whoosh!" and settled back into an impossible vertical pool of water. The members of SG-1, accompanied by a team of engineers headed up the ramp and disappeared into the biting cold of the wormhole. 

Having been deposited on the pebble beach, Sam began checking the reactor, and the engineers secured the gate to the beach and surrounding rocks. Once they had completed their work, they waited for Sam to dial home and left SG-1 to scale the cliff.

Sam showed Daniel how to get into his harness, and gave him an encouraging smile as she expertly strapped herself into hers. Jack and Teal'c set up the rope at the bottom of the cliff, and Teal'c began a steady climb, stopping periodically to hammer pegs into the rock. Sam explained about anchor points and top-roping to Daniel, but he wasn't really paying attention. He had taken on board what Jack had told him about being 'safe as houses' and while he didn't quite believe this, his excitement at seeing Ernest's fantastic room again was overriding his anxiousness at having to climb a cliff to get to it.

After they had hauled up some of the heavier equipment Sam began her ascent. From about two thirds of the way up she called back down to Daniel "It's not as bad as it looks, the rock isn't too smooth and there are plenty of hand and footholds." All too soon she was at the top and Jack was attaching Daniel to the rope. 

"Just remember to always have 3 points of contact" he was deadly serious now "and make sure that you know where you're going. Don't look down. Really – look at me Daniel – don't look down, I'm really not in the mood for scraping bits of you off the rocks here."

Daniel swallowed once, looked up at the cliff, looked back at Jack, looked up at the cliff again and then put his hands where Jack indicated. He climbed slowly but steadily. Really Teal'c and Sam didn't have anything much to do, neither did Jack, who was controlling Daniel's ascent from the ground. There was one heartstopping moment when Daniel, who had become a little overconfident, slid backwards for about 10 feet, but he managed to recover himself without any help from his team-mates, and started climbing again.  Finally he was at the top, indicating that Jack should come up too.

Jack sighed, glad that the rest of his team couldn't see him. He wasn't a big fan of rock-climbing – he wouldn't show that to Daniel of course – but he regarded it as a necessary evil in his line of work. Still, he could have done without it. At least it wasn't raining, and the cliff was far enough from the crashing waves that the rock wasn't all slick and wet. He carried out all his equipment checks – twice. Finally, not able to put it off any longer he attached himself and hauled his body up the rock face. By the time he got to the top he had a slight sheen of sweat on his face and hands, his legs were decidedly shaky and his shirt and the back of his jacket were wringing wet. He flopped down on his back with one arm over his eyes and took a swig from Daniel's proffered canteen. He moved his arm and met Daniel's gaze as he grunted his thanks.

"He knows" Jack thought. He didn't quite know how, but there was something in the steely blue eyes that let him know that Daniel knew that he hated rock climbing. He couldn't let that go.

"OK, folks, we'll stop here in this nice picnic spot and have some lunch, then we'll mosey on up to the castle." He laughed when he saw Sam's crestfallen look, but Daniel was spending way too much time with Jack, and could fight back on the same terms.

"Aw, c'mon Jack, just admit it. You're wasted after that little bit of a climb and you...."

"Geez! Whatever happened to 'friendly banter'?" Jack sighed heavily in mock resignation and stood up like a weary old man getting up out of a rocking chair "OK, Teal'c you're first, then Carter, Daniel.... I'll pick up any stragglers." He gave Daniel a light shove in the back and they set off up the slight incline towards the castle which loomed menacingly before them.

-oOo-

"Over here, Sir!" They had been looking round the remaining outer walls of the castle for nearly an hour when Sam found a way in. "It's a bit of a squeeze but looks solid enough."

"I wonder how old it is, it looks ancient, and it was certainly built to last." Jack ran his hands over the weathered exterior of the castle.

"Well, if it was a meeting place used by the Ancients, it's pretty… well, ancient." Daniel was too excited to start the verbal sparring up again "Here, give me the camcorder please." 

"Well, let's get out of this wind.... looks like it's going to rain soon." They looked up. Angry grey clouds had been gathering all afternoon and Sam thought they looked close enough that she could reach up and touch them.

She stuck her head through the doorway recently used by Daniel "Colonel, we can set up camp here, not too far from the entrance at least it's dry and protected from the wind. And look, we can see the gate from here... it's holding its position so far." She climbed through and headed off in the direction Daniel had taken hurrying to catch up with him. "Daniel, wait!"

It was left to Jack and Teal'c to stow the rest of the equipment out of the way of the wind and weather, and set up camp. They agreed that they probably wouldn't have to stay and guard it. In all the 50 years he'd been there Ernest hadn't encountered another soul. He hadn't spoken to anyone, except the Catherine who'd lived in his head. Teal'c looked around, his face impassive as ever.

"O'Neill, I do not believe that I would survive 50 years in this place."

"You and me both, Teal'c, you and me both." Jack finished what he was doing "OK, come on honey. Let's see what the kids are up to..."

"Honey?" Teal'c mouthed the word at Jack's retreating back, and thought, not for the first time, that there was something more to the Tauri than they were letting on. He stored the thought for later reference, he would ask Major Carter when they had a quiet moment if she too thought that Colonel O'Neill was acting strangely. He'd certainly seemed happier in recent times, almost playful.

Teal'c didn't spend any time wondering about it, O'Neill's private life was nothing to do with him. He followed O'Neill cautiously. Even though Ernest hadn't encountered anyone here, Teal'c wouldn't relax his guard until they were back at the SGC. The fact that he set such a high store by vigilance was one of the reasons he had lived so long.

Jack and Teal'c caught up with the others in a room that had only three remaining walls, the fourth was reduced to about knee height, with what was left of the floor of the next room forming a ledge on the outside of it. Daniel stood on the ledge, staring blankly down to the sea far below, muttering. Nobody could hear what he was saying, the wind was whipping his words away which was probably just as well, because while Jack was no expert at lip-reading he was pretty sure that lots of what Daniel was mumbling began with 'F'.

"It would appear that the information we seek is no longer here, O'Neill." Teal'c had a gift for stating the blindingly obvious. Jack and the Jaffa looked around. They were in what had been Ernest's home for half a century. The remains of his diving suit were in the corner and some dried up twigs and branches were piled up waiting to be used for a fire. It was just about the last room to survive nearly intact.

"OK, this is the plan." Jack wondered privately how Daniel was going to react to this "We go back to where we made our camp and stay there overnight. At the first opportunity tomorrow we'll go back through the Stargate." Sam and Teal'c nodded their assent. Daniel stayed where he was, muttering curses at the sea, the weather, the universe and about half a dozen gods. 

"OK" Jack indicated Teal'c and Sam "You two go ahead I'll bring Daniel."

"Um, Sir, perhaps it might be better if I spoke to him? I mean, I was really excited about this stuff too. It might not sound so harsh coming from me."

"OK, Teal'c, looks like it's just you and me. Let's go." 

"Daniel, don't you think it's time to come in now?" Sam called across the room while she was walking. It had occurred to her that if she just appeared at his side and spoke to him, he'd join the room in the sea below. She continued speaking to him while she approached, telling him how disappointed she was but that it was time to leave.

He didn't move for a long time, neither did he give any indication that he had heard her, or that he was even aware of her presence. Finally she was rewarded by him looking up at her and nodding silently. He climbed over the wall and sat on the floor with his back to it. He drew his knees to his chest, clasped his hands round them and rested his chin on top. As Sam dropped down next to him he let out a heavy sigh. She moved up close, laid her head against his arm and said "I know, sometimes it seems like nothing is ever going to go right, we're never going to achieve anything but the day we give up trying...."

"Yeah, the day we give up trying is the day we give up the fight. Roll over and play dead for the Goa'uld.." He paused  "I'd still like to have seen it though."

"Me too. Can you imagine, another 35 or so elements....?" Sam stared off into space. "Well, there's no use worrying about it now.... c'mon time for a tasty treat: aka MRE." 

She stood and held out her hand for Daniel. As she pulled him up he stumbled and crashed against her throwing his arms around her to stop them from falling. They stood like that for a while silently commiserating with the other's disappointment until finally she gave him a tight squeeze and smiled up into his eyes. They disentangled themselves and went off in search of the others.

-oOo-

The journey back was relatively uneventful – Sam's calculations about the tides had been meticulous and correct. They arrived at the top of the cliff and Jack busied himself organising the ropes for their abseil down to the beach. Daniel's eyes were wide and his mouth open in a silent 'O' as it slowly dawned on him what he was being expected to do. Now he knew the military were all mad. They wanted him to jump off a cliff, at least that was the only bit he heard...

"Daniel" Sam was helping the Colonel get ready to go down the cliff "This is way easier, and much more fun than climbing. People actually pay to do this you know…"

"Yeah, and you're actually getting paid to do it…" Jack was just as unable to resist a sarcastic comment as Daniel was to resist some ancient piece of stone covered in mysterious (to everyone else) squiggles. 

Sam cut him off with a look and then turned back to Daniel "All you have to do is make sure you're perpendicular to the rock and keep yourself parallel to the ground."

"And if you want to stop or slow down, do what my basic training instructor always said 'stick your thumb up your butt' and you'll stop dead." Jack didn't try to disguise the fact that he was happy to be leaving this place, he'd had enough of it the first time around. "OK Teal'c, you watch the rope for me." And with that he turned and, facing forwards, ran down the sheer cliff face. Funny really, he was never as bothered about going down as going up. It wasn't something he was going to lose any sleep over, unlike Daniel who looked as though he would rather take his chances in the castle than go back down the cliff. Jack soon arrived at the bottom, released himself from the harness and turned to the others "OK, Danny, you're next!"

Daniel looked at Sam. "Don't you want to go next?" She shook her head, and gently but firmly took him to the edge of the cliff and arranged him in the correct position. They stood facing each other for what seemed like ages but was, in reality, only a few seconds. "Look at me… you trust me, don't you?" Daniel nodded "Good. Now lean back, keep your body straight, further… further….Daniel, you've got to be parallel to the ground…. good. Look, it's better if you keep your right hand behind your back, and feed the line slowly through your left…. No, no, keep your hand behind you…. OK, see? You're not going anywhere. You could stay here all day like that, and not move an inch."

Daniel kept his gaze locked on Sam's eyes. "Uh, Sam… this isn't a good time for me to tell you I'm afraid of heights, is it?"

She grinned at him "Daniel, I know that already. OK, now, bring your right hand away from your back, out to the side, slowly… slowly, and then you can just walk backwards down the cliff…. Keep perpendicular to the rock, parallel to the ground… good, that's it…. Now, if you think you're going too fast just get your right hand behind your back… If you want to go a bit faster, bounce off the cliff with your feet apart ….. both feet at the same time…. Good, that's it…. See, told you ….."

Arms suddenly gripped Daniel from behind, he'd arrived at the bottom before he'd realised where he was. He sat shakily on a boulder and waited for his heart rate to slow down and the shaking to stop. Jack patted him absently on the shoulder, and told him to stay where he was. No problem, he didn't feel as though his legs were taking him anywhere for the foreseeable future. Sam and Teal'c lowered the kit that couldn't be carried, and finally they were all at the foot of the cliff. 

Sam sat down next to Daniel… they had a little time to kill before the water receded enough for the gate to be used. "See, it wasn't all that bad, was it?" he shook his head. He looked away, and she noticed that he had what Jack called his 'closed' expression "Come on you can help me dial home."

They connected the naquada reactor, dialled earth and waited for the event horizon to settle down. Daniel took a last, longing, look at the castle and followed his team-mates back to the SGC. To say he was disappointed would be an understatement and there was the beginning of something else bubbling under the surface too.

General Hammond met them in the gateroom "Debriefing in one hour. Go and get cleaned up people."

For once Sam had reached the locker room first, so while she was showering and changing Daniel ducked into his office, checked his e-mails, poked half-heartedly around in his in-tray and pottered around with an ever deepening frown. By the time the locker room was declared a male only environment he was fairly glowering. He said hardly a word as he slammed around getting showered and changed, Jack and Teal'c knew his moods and stayed away.

Daniel was finished first and met up with Sam in the briefing room. She took one look at his face and decided to say nothing, merely handing him a cup of coffee, which he took wordlessly. She shrugged, he'd had a big disappointment and would tell her what was eating at him sooner or later she supposed.

The briefing didn't last long – what was there to say after all? Pretty much "we came, we saw nothing, we left again" – and the team were stood down for the next 24 hours. Jack wanted to ask the rest of the team over to his place for beer and pizza, but he didn't get the chance. Before anybody had a chance to speak to Daniel he was out of the SGC and on the way back to his apartment. Jack, Sam and Teal'c went over to Jack's place anyway, and tried to call him a couple of times, but he didn't pick up the phone and he must have switched the machine off because it just rang endlessly.

"Ooookkaayyy." Said Jack after the fifth try "Anyone want to guess what this is all about? I mean Daniel was out of that briefing room today like greased weasel shit off a Teflon shovel." 

"Um, Sir, he's been a bit quiet and preoccupied ever since we found that the 'meeting room' had fallen into the sea. Maybe he's just a bit more disappointed than we thought?"

"Possible, but after... shit, he hasn't spoken to me since then I left him on the ledge. Did something happen between you two?"

Carter looked up at him in shocked surprise "Look, Sir, you know there's nothing to worry about there...." her voice petered out as she saw O'Neill's embarrassed look. "I didn't mean..."

 "Geez, sorry Carter, I didn't mean it to sound like that..." She nodded her acceptance of his apology "It surely can't be just because I teased him about rock-climbing, because he got me back for that one."

"I didn't realise you two kept score!" Sam was amused

"DanielJackson does not." Teal'c arched an eyebrow in her direction "I believe Colonel O'Neill makes a mark in his notebook."

"I do NOT!" expostulated the subject of their discourse "Oh, OK, well maybe I keep score in my head.... but I do NOT make marks in a notebook."

"Show us your notebook then Sir.... look Teal'c, he's blushing. I think you're right."

"Anyway, let's get back to the point, shall we? We were, if you remember, trying to work out what's eating Daniel." Jack took a swig of his beer and looked round at Teal'c and Sam.

"Well, I think it has something to do with P3X-972...."

"Ah, You don't say!" Jack stared into space for a few seconds, then took another swig of his beer. He sat up suddenly, then appeared to relax back into his chair.

Sam was on to it like a shot "Give then." 

"Ah, that would be 'Give then, Sir' if you don't mind." Jack had that annoying 'I'm going to bug my team' look on his face – Sam knew that it masked serious stuff.

"OK, then, as you like it – give then, Sir, please." She feigned nonchalance, if he could play games, so could she, but one way or the other she was going to find out what it was he thought he knew.

"I believe I can be of assistance MajorCarter." Teal'c gave Jack a scowl.

"Geez, Teal'c. Have  you been taking 'filthy looks' lessons from Daniel?" 

"No"

"Ah. Then you must be spending too much time with him."

"No, O'Neill, I have spent very little time with him since...."

"OK, Sir, I've been patient... are you going to give me at least a clue as to why you think Daniel ran out of the SGC like the place was on fire today?"

"Nope, Carter, no clues. We'll see him tomorrow anyway. I think he needs to get it out of his system... maybe work it out for himself." Jack indicated that the subject was closed by draining his beer and walking to the kitchen "Now.... who's for another beer."

-oOo-

The subject of their conversation sat on his sofa, where he'd been since his return to the apartment. He was leaning forwards, elbows on his knees head in hands: the attitude of dejection or deep thought. Or both, of course. Daniel had plenty of experience of both, separately and together, so it wasn't surprising to find him in this state. 

The room was in semi-darkness because although it had still been light when he got home, that had been quite some time ago. He hadn't eaten, and now he was starting to feel hungry. And thirsty. Fleetingly he thought that if he'd gone with the others as planned he'd be full of pizza and getting slowly sloshed on a couple of beers with his best, pretty much his only, friends. But no, he'd had a burning urge to go home and – he surprised himself by identifying what he was doing as sulking... OK then: he'd had a burning urge to go home and sulk, and he'd given in to it.

Daniel, on account of his large blue eyes and full bottom lip could really look the part when he was sulking, and this time was no exception. If he could have recognised the feeling underneath the sulk, he would have realised that he was a bit miffed that there was nobody there to see the sulk-meister at work. He could cope with the ribbing about the rock-climbing and all the other stuff, that was all in good spirit, because he knew that Jack was serious when it was required.  No…something else was bothering him.

Daniel thought about the care Jack had taken to make sure his climbing harness and ropes were correctly and securely attached. He'd also seen how much Jack hadn't enjoyed the climb, not like Teal'c and Sam who had actually relished it! 

He let his thoughts roam around a bit at random before gently directing them to the source of his.... sulk was far too childish a word. He didn't want to use it, so cast around his prodigious vocabulary until he came up with the word dissatisfaction. His thoughts had started to roam a bit too freely for his liking, so he marshalled them once more and nudged them in the direction of his dissatisfaction.

He knew it would be like removing a plaster: a painful act that would reveal a not-quite-healed wound. It hadn't escaped anyone at the SGCs notice that Jack and Daniel had had, in modern parlance, 'issues' since that episode with Maybourne and Makepeace and their rogue team. Then there was that 'thing' on Euronda, and then the other 'thing' with the Enkarans had only compounded the problem. 

So, then, this evening when he should have been celebrating something approaching the return to normality of SG-1, he was sitting alone in a darkened room and not enjoying it. Not one little bit. No, he was looking inside himself and resenting his feelings.

So, what was he feeling, the errant civilian in military clothing? He was feeling ... what was it now... ah yes... dissatisfaction. Actually he was angry. On their first trip to P3X-972 Jack had insisted that he leave the castle with Catherine, Ernest and the rest of the team. Daniel had resisted with all his might before capitulating.

Jack's reasoning had been that it would be no good being stuck there, with no means of getting back and sharing the information. But his 'scholar's gut feeling' had been proved correct: if he'd stayed, Sam's cold dialling programme would have come to his aid sooner or later. Daniel realised that he was angry with Jack and, more surprisingly with himself. He decided to examine his feelings towards Jack, and come back to himself later.

So, why was he angry with Jack? Simply because it had been Jack who had made him see that leaving Ernest's castle was the only sensible option. It all boiled down to that. And it hurt.

"So why, then, aren't I angry with Ernest? He told me that it wasn't worth it, Jack was just looking out for me..." Daniel's anger faded out, as he knew it would. His brain started working again... Why had it been Jack who called him the other day? Why had he been in the control room at all... the technology usually bored him rigid until it was useful in planning a mission. A simple 'glitch' in the cold dialling programme wouldn't normally have entertained him for more than a few seconds, if at all.

"Shit!" the penny dropped "He ... Oh shitbastarddamn! That son-of-a... oh now you're going to have to grovel, Jackson." He'd been so busy getting excited about the mission to the castle he hadn't realised that the whole thing had been Jack's idea.

Daniel started pacing the room, talking his way through his theories, as was his habit "It's his way of trying to make up for things... making up for what things exactly? Well, let's make a list: top of the list is Sha're, the 'stealing technology from the Tollan' episode, the 'asking me to kill him and Teal'c' on the submarine, the 'shut up, is that subtle enough for you' on Euronda, the 'sorry if I tell you everything you'll turn into a power crazy meglomaniac' dream... Oh, shitbastarddamfuck...OK, OK, sort the Jack thing out later."

What Daniel needed to know now was why on Earth was he mad at himself? And the simple answer was that it was because he had let himself be persuaded to leave that holy grail of information and go back to the SGC. Boy was he mad about that. He conveniently forgot that if he hadn't gone back he would have known neither about Sha're (maybe a good thing, maybe not) nor about her child (which might also – upon reflection – have been a good thing, maybe not). He then began to be angry at himself for getting angry about everything.... and suddenly it all became clear. The pacing and talking to himself always helped. He didn't need to be mad at Jack, himself... anyone.

Daniel walked over to his desk and scrabbled around the papers, files, books and empty coffee cups until he found what he was looking for. A postcard given to him by someone who meant ... "Meant? Means.".... a lot. It bore the legend "Accept what you can't change" – good advice and he intended to take it. He would adopt it as a mantra for his new beginning. 

He jumped as the doorbell rang. Glancing at his watch he realised with surprise that it was gone midnight. He opened the door and stared at his visitor in surprise.

"What are you doing here? Didn't think I'd see you tonight."

"What kind of welcome is that?" they exchanged a brief kiss "Oh, I see you got the postcard then."

Daniel glanced down, he was still holding his new life motto "Yes, I think I'm going to get it framed."

The late night guest stepped through the door and headed through to the living room as familiarly as if it were their own apartment, which it almost was "C'mon, let's go to bed, we've got an early start.... you haven't forgotten that Goa'uld pleasure palace thing you're investigating tomorrow with SG-5?" and then added almost as an afterthought "Oh, here, nearly forgot.... take this."

Daniel looked at the open bottle of beer that had been pressed into his hand took a quick mouthful and nodded his thanks at the giver. Which meant that he'd had the drink with his team after all, if he'd understood the gesture correctly - which he had.  

Daniel put the bottle on the coffee table and held out his hand "Come on then, let's catch up on the beauty sleep, you must be shattered!"

"Actually I was thinking more of the jammies....."

~The End~


End file.
